In the busy city life, people's pursuit of food never stops, and online platforms have become a key bridge between consumers and businesses. However, such bridges also sometimes have some cracks. Recently, Bantian Demon Grilled Fish, a well-known grilled fish brand, had a "small episode" with Meituan, a large takeaway platform.
According to a report on January 29, 2024, some of Bantian Demon Grilled Fish stores received an urgent notice from the headquarters on the evening of January 24, requiring all of its more than 1,000 takeaway stores on the Meituan platform to temporarily go offline. The sudden decision made stores need to immediately adjust their takeaway preparation strategies to cope with possible order fluctuations. However, this "pause button" did not last long. After just a few days of adjustments, the status of Bantian Demon Grilled Fish's stores on Meituan has changed from "resting" to normal business, and consumers can place orders through the platform as usual and enjoy their delicious grilled fish.
Then, behind this dramatic event of "taking off the shelves and putting them on the shelves" is a power contest between merchants and platforms. It is understood that Bantian Demon Grilled Fish's action this time is more to win more preferential policies on the platform, so as to put pressure on Meituan, in order to obtain cooperation terms that are more conducive to its own development. Despite this, the official staff of Bantian Demon Grilled Fish and Meituan responded cautiously, and neither side made a clear public statement on the specific circumstances of the incident.
This incident is not an isolated case, in the past six months, there have been repeated cases of catering businesses being removed from the shelves on the Meituan platform, which has attracted attention. These phenomena reflect that in the process of cooperation between platforms and merchants, there is a certain balance of interests and power struggle. How to find the best balance between safeguarding the interests of merchants and protecting the rights and interests of consumers is a challenge that every platform needs to continue to explore and face. In the context of the digital era, the relationship between online service platforms and merchants, and how they can jointly promote the healthy development of the catering industry, is undoubtedly a topic worth pondering.
In response to this phenomenon, some professionals believe that this is a free choice of the half-heavenly demon based on its own interests. When deciding whether to cooperate with a platform, merchants will consider various factors such as the platform's business characteristics, user groups, preferential policies, and marketing activities to evaluate which platform can bring higher final revenue. With the increase in the number of e-commerce platforms, the competition has become more fierce, so merchants have more choices. This also means that platforms need to constantly optimize their services and increase their attractiveness in order to gain an edge in attracting and retaining merchants. In this process, the interaction and negotiation between the platform and the merchant will be more complicated, but at the same time, it will also create more possibilities for cooperation between the two parties.